Wow — in what was one of our most unpopular polls ever, we asked last week whether people nap at the office and whether they have a system to it. The poll is still open, but the initial results were split pretty much in thirds:

– 32% said that yes, you had napped at the office more than once

– 30% denied ever napping

– 38% said they’d only napped once and weren’t proud of it.

As various articles report, napping for just 20 minutes can increase your productivity by clearing your mind’s clutter, as well as improving memory, stamina, and motor skills. One article even weighs the different benefits of naps lasting anywhere from 2 seconds to 90 minutes. Some companies are even installing “sleep pods” to help their workers recharge:

Photo credit: Cat nap, originally uploaded to Flickr by Mr. Miyagi. Note that there’s actually a difference between a cat nap (which one does on a lazy Sunday) and a power nap (which one might do at your office).

Inspired by last week’s Wolford sale at Rue La La, we thought we’d ask — do you wear patterned tights in cold weather? There are a ton of options out there. Our rule of thumb has always been to stick with the kinds of patterns men wear on shirts — pinstriped, windowpane, et cetera. What are your thoughts?

The most junior person on the team — whether woman or man — frequently gets assigned the more secretarial duties, such as FedExing letters, contracts, briefs, and document productions to the same people over and over (and over) again. (And, instead of re-delegating the secretarial task to the secretary, the junior person often ends up doing it themselves — either because their secretary has already left for the day or because they don’t trust their secretary to do it correctly.)

With FedEx.com, though, there’s almost no reason to even delegate the task of the FedEx label — it automatically prints a mailing label for you. The lettering is perfect — no need to write extra slow or ask your secretary to try to jam two typewritten lines onto one. Better yet, the program has bells and whistles your plain old mailing label doesn’t have: for example, it will remember previous addresses and the details of those previous addresses, such as whether there’s an internal billing code that should be assigned to that shipment. If you FedEx things to the same 4 people repeatedly you can create a “Group” and it will automatically print a mailing label for each of the 4 people. The program also will automatically e-mail you when the shipment is delivered (with information such as who signed for it), or e-mail you a head’s up if there are delivery problems.

The account is free — all you need is your company’s 9-digit FedEx account number (type it in the space we’ve highlighted yellow — the blue space is for your internal billing number), a clear pouch, and a laser printer (to print the bar code clearly) and you’re good to go.

Liking these posts? Follow Corporette on Twitter — this is the edited version of what we’re reading! (We also Tweet if we hear about a good sale.)

– Diane von Furstenberg is having an online sale — great selection and decent prices. [DvF.com]

– Yes, yes: The McCain campaign somehow managed to spend $150K on Palin’s wardrobe and she looks, largely, the same. [NYT] Although, apparently, she is keenly aware of her “new” image and gave the SNL wardrobe people guff. [The Huffington Post]

Last week we asked you whether a visible tattoo was ever acceptable to women lawyers. And wow did you guys respond — roughly 1500 of you weighed in. Although the poll is still open, here are the results thus far:

43% of you said a professional woman could never have a visible tattoo

30% of you said it was fine if it could be covered by clothes or makeup

12% of you said only so long as it wasn’t visible when you shook hands or interviewed

8% said sure, a visible tattoo was fine

The commenting section was where things got ugly — some commenters accused the reader who had e-mailed of already having gotten the tattoo, and just seeking assurance. Some commenters referred to “tramp stamps” (which, we agree with the commenter who noted that that’s only generally referring to a lower back tattoo). The extremely helpful “billybob” opined that tattoos were for hookers, not lawyers. Quite a few readers noted that tattoos were only in style in the late ’80s. [Read more…]